Chapter Thirteen: The Emergence of the Life Core

After hearing what the Instrument God said—namely, to lure out the life core of the Soul-Connecting Flower by capturing a cultivator and using that cultivator’s soul as a bait—Qu Yi activated the Boundless Stars and Teleportation, returning to a planet in the outer region of the Five Souls Desolation.

On this planet, Qu Yi found no strong warriors from the ten major sects and immediately realized that they must be on other planets in the outer regions. He then asked the Instrument God to contact the seven sect leaders under his control. Back at the Vast Heaven Immortal Mansion, Qu Yi had already taken control of Tai Ming, Ying Hua, Jin Xiong, Cang Huang, Qing Long, Tu Long, and Shui Long—these seven sect leaders. Although the Instrument God had altered their memories, the soul shackles within their souls still remained in the Instrument God’s grasp. With just a thought from the Instrument God, the seven sect leaders would realize they were under its control.

Soon, the Instrument God contacted Tai Ming, the sect leader of the Tai Yuan Sect. Qu Yi then learned that the strong warriors from the ten major sects were all in space at that moment, each cultivator sitting on a meteor in a meteor belt, meditating in silence while waiting for the return of the ten figures from the upper realm.

Once Qu Yi knew their locations, he immediately headed into space and used continuous planet-hopping to quickly reach the vicinity of that meteor belt. The entire meteor belt surrounded three planets, flowing around them like a blue river of sand, reflecting sunlight and emitting a dazzling glow from time to time.

Qu Yi glanced at the meteor belt before flying onto a meteor wide enough for one person to stand on. He then stepped swiftly, moving from one meteor to another.

A strong warrior in the late stage of the Tribulation Phase from the Green Flame Peak had sat on a meteor for a while but found it impossible to concentrate, so he began flying within the meteor belt, hoping to find peace there for a while. As he floated lightly to a meteor, this meteor was as wide as ten miles and appeared to be made of some kind of blue, glowing crystal. Its blue light stood out sharply among the surrounding meteors.

Just as the warrior landed on the meteor, Qu Yi suddenly appeared, as if he had been lurking on a nearby meteor and teleported over in an instant.

Yes, Qu Yi’s current spiritual realm is nearing the late stage of tribulation, so the sensing range of the Artifact God’s spiritual consciousness has also reached the human-immortal level. When this powerful warrior from the Biyan Peak, who was in the late stage of tribulation, arrived, the Artifact God detected him and instructed Qu Yi to use the “Silent Art” to hide beneath an asteroid. When the warrior arrived, Qu Yi immediately teleported there.

“Ah, Qu Yi…” The warrior in the late stage of tribulation exclaimed in shock. He never expected Qu Yi to appear here; he thought Qu Yi had already gone to the central area of the Five Souls Desolation.

Qu Yi already had the Shangjin Sword in his hand. As he appeared, he swung the sword immediately. Sword light filled the air, causing spatial vibrations, and it seemed as though the space around the warrior was sealed off—no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t escape. Soon, sword energy filled the entire space, leaving the warrior barely alive.

Qu Yi controlled himself and did not kill the warrior in the late stage of tribulation. Quickly, he took out a binding rope of lower-grade immortal artifact quality to tie up the warrior. Then, he took the warrior with him and activated the Boundless Stars.

In the space outside the Reincarnation Star, Qu Yi had already placed a soul compass on a giant floating asteroid. He first returned to that asteroid and then intended to take the warrior in the late stage of tribulation to the Reincarnation Star.

However, the Artifact God immediately detected the situation on the Reincarnation Star and warned Qu Yi not to fly there for now.

……

The five soul essences, under the pursuit of ten people from the upper realm, found it extremely difficult to escape. So, they teleported directly to the Reincarnation Star—the planet where they evolved from spirit essences to soul essences.

Originally, these five soul essences did not want to go to the Reincarnation Star because bringing outsiders there would naturally destroy the planet, damaging a large number of flowers—specifically, the stamens of the Soul-Connecting Flowers.

The Soul-Connecting Flowers were essentially like the parents of these five soul essences. Unless it was absolutely necessary, they would never bring outsiders to the Reincarnation Star. But given the current situation, if they didn’t go there, they would face death. Thus, they had no choice but to fly to the Reincarnation Star.

As soon as the five soul essences entered the Reincarnation Star, they immediately hid underground.

Zong Xi, Feng Qu, Yan Xuan, Qiu Rui, Yi Xi, Chen Yan, Rong Han, Jun Wei, Zhuo Hong, and Qi Jia—these ten people from the upper realm followed the five soul essences and all landed on the surface of the Reincarnation Star, surrounded by bright flowers.

The ten were shocked as they sensed the atmosphere around them, feeling a soul-draining force attacking their souls, as if the entire planet was filled with a haunting dark wind. It was utterly strange! As soon as the ten beings from the upper realms landed, they wanted to soar into the sky and leave this eerie planet. But just as they prepared to take off, a golden flower suddenly emerged from beneath the ground of Reincarnation Planet. The flower resembled a sculpture, glowing with golden light, possessing an extraordinary ability to captivate attention—seemingly drawing people in with just one glance. This flower was the core of the Soul-Stealing Flower. The moment it appeared, it immediately activated its power, aiming to pull the souls of these ten powerful beings at the Human Immortal level out of their bodies and devour them all at once. However, the core could only detect soul energy and failed to realize that these ten were actually Human Immortal-level warriors. Upon sensing the core’s actions, the ten immediately understood its intent to devour their souls and grew angry one after another. “In the realm of cultivation, there are still monsters daring to steal our souls—how ignorant!” they shouted in anger. Suddenly, a flower of various colors appeared above each of their heads. Those who practiced golden energy techniques had golden flowers; those who practiced wood energy techniques had green flowers; those who practiced water energy techniques had blue flowers; those who practiced fire energy techniques had red flowers; and those who practiced earth energy techniques had yellow flowers. These flowers above their heads were their Soul Flowers, with each flower representing their attainment of the Human Immortal level. By revealing their Soul Flowers, the ten beings from the upper realms immediately resisted the Soul-Stealing Flower core’s soul-draining power. As soon as the Soul Flowers appeared, all the spiritual energy in Reincarnation Planet’s space converged toward them. The primal energies of the five elements within the spiritual energy automatically separated and gathered around the ten, at their disposal. Their own domains were formed automatically. The Soul-Stealing Flower core, realizing that these ten were so powerful that they had resisted its soul-draining power and even created domains of the five elements to trap it, became extremely enraged. Suddenly, all the flowers covering the surface of Reincarnation Planet vanished in an instant, and the core expanded a hundred times, emitting golden light as bright as that of a star, too dazzling to look at.

The Life Core tried to deal with ten cultivators at the Immortal level all at once on its own, but sadly, even though its strength increased by a hundred times, it still couldn’t extract their souls. The Soul Flowers above their heads seemed impossibly hard, showing not the slightest sign of movement.
…
Qu Yi waited in the starry sky, listening to the Insights God’s account of the Life Core’s battle against those ten people.
“Insights God, what’s with those Soul Flowers above those ten people’s heads?” Qu Yi asked curiously.
“Qu Yi, you’ll understand when you reach the Immortal Realm. After comprehending the primordial energy of the Five Elements, your soul will change. Once you fully grasp the power of one such primordial energy, a Soul Flower will appear above your head as well. The ‘Five Energies and Three Flowers’ technique you practice refers to these Soul Flowers. You don’t need to understand it now; you’ll know when you start to comprehend primordial energy,” the Insights God said calmly.
Silence.
After hearing the Insights God’s words, Qu Yi vaguely understood the path of cultivation ahead. It seemed that going to the Immortal Realm would require a difficult journey of training.
“Insights God, in your opinion, can the Life Core defeat those ten people working together?” Qu Yi suddenly asked.
“No!” the Insights God replied bluntly.
Qu Yi was stunned for a moment before asking again, “Then if I go to help the Life Core attack those ten, can it sneak attack one of them?”
At this moment, Qu Yi really wanted to use a mid-tier immortal artifact to launch a surprise attack, causing one or two of the ten to suffer losses, so that they would be more cautious when pursuing him in the future.
“It’s very difficult. Although you have a mid-tier immortal artifact, you can only use the primordial energy inside the Star Luo Ding to activate it. Since you haven’t yet grasped the power of primordial energy, you can’t unleash even one percent of its strength. Moreover, each of those ten people surely also has a mid-tier immortal artifact. They’ve all comprehended the power of primordial energy, so your attacks will be like scratching an itch to them,” the Insights God said indifferently.
After hearing this, Qu Yi pondered for a while before saying, “Then if I use five mid-tier immortal artifacts together to attack one person at the same time, I should be able to succeed, right?”
“There’s a slight chance, but it’s still very difficult to harm them. The gap in cultivation levels means that even if you use tricks, it’s useless,” the Insights God said softly.
Qu Yi sighed, realizing that the Insights God wasn’t deliberately trying to discourage him. The gap in strength was indeed too large. He had originally planned to take advantage of the conflict between the Life Core and those ten to launch a surprise attack and kill one of them, but it seemed that plan wouldn’t work now.

“However, you need not be disheartened. Your 99-day tribulation won’t be long in coming. Go and appear now, say a few words to those ten people, then leave. Complete the scanning of the Four Elements Dao, overcome the 99-day tribulation, and then deal with those ten people again,” the Artifact God suddenly said.
Upon hearing this, Qu Yi understood the Artifact God’s plan.
“Alright, I’ll improve my strength first before settling accounts with those ten people,” Qu Yi said with a faint smile.
Immediately afterward, Qu Yi teleported above the Reincarnation Star.